Hours after taking the stage in Las Vegas, Eddie Villanueva and other members of the Texas-based Josh Abbott Band were relaxing on their tour bus when the shooting started.
The shooting was the deadliest in modern U.S. history. Authorities said 64-year-old Stephen Paddock fired at a crowd in Las Vegas Sunday night, leaving 58 dead and more than 500 others wounded.
“I get a text message from our tour manager saying, ‘Take cover,’ and I didn’t know what he meant by that,” Villanueva said. “And then I see our banjo player run up from the front of the bus saying apparently there is an active shooter, and all I could think of was, ‘Oh my God, that's what [our tour manager] means.”
Villanueva and the other members of the Josh Abbott band were the second group to go on stage Sunday as part of the Route 91 Harvest Festival, about five hours prior to the shooting.
“I just I told our guitar player and our banjo player, ‘Let’s run for the middle [of the bus], lock the door,'" Villanueva said. "'Let’s run to the middle where there are no windows and lay down, lay for cover.'”
The drummer noted the sound of gunfire appeared as though it was coming from directly above them, although Villanueva later learned the suspected shooter was farther away from them than it seemed at the time.
“With those gunshots, when you hear that assault rifle right there outside our bus, the thought that goes through your mind right now is like, ‘Wow, this is it,’" he said. "I called my mom and dad, my wife, and I talked to them on the phone. I just told them that, ‘This could be it.’ And you could just still hear the gunshots going on rapid fire thinking it's just right next to you.”
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Villanueva said his phone had been inundated by missed and text messages from family members, friends and fans in the hours that have passed since the incident.
“It's just overwhelming," he said. "All the love you get and the support.”
